Crafty, my ass!

Yes, this blog needs an expletive. Maybe two, damnit. I have spent the last 90 minutes and 3 gallons of perspiration creating a new bulletin board at work, and I have decided my theory that there's a whole class on this in teacher school absolutely has to be true. Gone are the days of my cute decoupage picture frames, imaginative scrapbook pages, precise ceramics painting, and well-crafted cross-stitching. I totally suck at this! What started out as an inspirational beach theme (sun, sand, and water created out of my 64 kids' orange, blue, and tan handprints) now looks like "Make a Difference" lettered between an orange blob, a blue blob, and a tan blob. (And no, I did not choose orange and blue for U.Va.; rather, it is a Carolina blue and these were my default choices from construction paper leftovers). Unless people actually read The Starfish Story posted on the side, there is no way they are making the connection that this is a beach picture. Frankly, I'm not sure they will make the connection even if they DO go up and read it. Sigh. I should have just given my Kindergarteners fingerpaints and let them create "art."

Also, now seems like a good time to admit on the WWW that I definitely taught a fourth-grader the wrong way to add fractions in tutoring this week. One of her classmates did it the right way in tutoring yesterday and I was like, "Wait... are you sure that's right?" as the lightbulb of memory clicked on in my brain. Um yeah Girl 2 has an A... pretty sure I've got an F in 4th grade math and am possibly responsible for the downfall of the school's SOL scores by teaching Girl 1 incorrectly. Plus, now the secret that knowing how to add fractions is absolutely useless in "real life" (unless you cook, which I don't, or commonly order large quantities of pizza and calculate the amounts left over, which I don't) is totally out. Maybe I'll punish myself by making my next bulletin board about fractions.